boehner will be the speaker of the house unless something unforeseen happens in the next few weeks. he will keep the reins. the republicans lost a few seats, but that is not going to affect him. he ran unopposed in ohio for his own race, and the defining conflict of the republican conference in the 112th congress, the conflict between eric cantor and john boehner the speaker is really behind them from everything we have seen. that is remarkably stable, the first three positions. john boehner will be the next speaker, eric cantor will be the majority leader, and kevin mccarthy will be the majority whip. where it gets interesting is for the conference chairman position. that is currently held by jeb hensarling, who has been a rising star for a while within republican ranks. he was a republican study committee chairman, which is the top conservative position in republican circles in the house. there are two people making a run for conference chairman, tom price, who is also a former committee chairman of the past. he is currently making a bid for conference chairman, and then cathy mcm